Frantic Freddie:We're in our 50s & never had children by choice. I have nothing against kids,but dammit, when we have our annual party & I ask you not to bring anyone under 21, that means your 5 year old too. There's gonna be drunken adults, expensive musical equipment, there's nothing for kids to do here,my house is not child-proof & everything is either sharp or loaded.Find a babysitter or stay home, I've told people to leave after they said "But I didn't think that applied to my 2,4 & 6 year olds!" Yes it does,see where it says NO ONE UNDER 21 on the invite,in block letters.

really,I lock up the guns during the party

I realize I'm a little late to this thread, but mother of god THIS!

Not so CSS- Was just at a graduation party for a friend of a friend last night, we're all early 20-somethings, and some twit, also a 20-something, thought it would be nice to bring her 3 year old after all of us had been drinking for 2+ hours at about 11pm. Awesome parenting there.

/and people my age wonder why I don't enjoy their company//long time lurker, first time comment///slashies!!!

I'm sure this was a fine study and all, but not taking into account the number of women who die during pregnancy or childbirth seems like a significant omission when calculating the likelihood of death in relation to childbearing vs. childlessness: Link

An equally broad brush is the absolute statement:heili skrimsli: "Childfree people are NOT looking wistfully at those with kids and lamenting what we don't have. We are not 'sad' about this."

Unless you play dumbass language games like anyone who has a moment of regret is no longer "childfree" but now defined as "childless".

Absolutes are always wrong.

It's not a dumbass language game. There's a childfree blogger with a sociology background who writes about being childfree and she actually at one point tried to find all these women that supposedly are so regretful that they never had children. She thought they would be easy to find, given that the message you're spouting (most women who choose not to have children regret it/wish they had).

But when she tried to find them to find out how prevalent those regrets are, she found that they are not at all common. In fact, women who regret not having children by choice are exceedingly rare.

Girion47:This is a study of people who wanted and failed to have children, not those of us that are blissfully saving lots of money to spend on ourselves.

Exactly. All my friends with kids are miserable, apathetic, bitter jerks. The best way to go through life is unmarried, with a good dog for companionship, the occasional loose woman to liven up your bedsport, and learn how to cook for yourself.